CRISPR deletion (CRISPR-del) is a new genome editing tool that can delete or cut out certain pieces of DNA in living cells with surgical precision. This allows researchers to study the functions of the diverse and poorly ...
Biotechnology
Feb 18, 2021
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137
All things being equal, large, long-lived animals should have the highest risk of cancer.
Evolution
Feb 04, 2021
1
714
PARP inhibitors are recently developed drugs that have shown great promise against some types of ovarian, breast, prostate and pancreatic cancer, but many patients' tumors develop resistance to the drugs. Now researchers ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jan 19, 2021
0
23
An international research team has clarified the regulatory mechanism of the ubiquitin-proteasome system in recognizing and repairing DNA that has been damaged by ultraviolet (UV) light. The investigators at Kobe University ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Dec 08, 2020
0
8
Researchers from the University of Seville, in collaboration with colleagues from the Universities of Murcia and Marburg (Germany) have identified a new protein that makes it possible to repair DNA. The protein in question, ...
Cell & Microbiology
Oct 14, 2020
0
546
A research team from Cologne has discovered that a change in the DNA structure—more precisely in the chromatin—plays a decisive role in the recovery phase after DNA damage. The key is a double occupation by two methyl ...
Cell & Microbiology
Oct 13, 2020
0
283
DNA damage can occur anywhere in the genome, but most DNA is wrapped around nucleosomes making it inaccessible to the repair machinery. Researchers from the Gasser group now show that DNA damage induces histone depletion, ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Sep 24, 2020
0
31
Genomes are routinely subjected to DNA damage. But most cells have DNA repair systems that enforce genome stability and, ideally, prevent diseases like cancer. The trouble gets serious when these systems break down. When ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Sep 16, 2020
0
43
The world inside the human cell has grown a bit more interesting in recent years as the role of a new biological structure became clearer.
Biochemistry
Sep 09, 2020
0
26
A new bioluminescent reporter that tracks DNA double stranded break (DSB) repair in cells has been developed by researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Academia Sinica in Taiwan. The international team's ...
Biotechnology
Aug 21, 2020
0
202
DNA repair refers to a collection of processes by which a cell identifies and corrects damage to the DNA molecules that encode its genome. In human cells, both normal metabolic activities and environmental factors such as UV light and Radiation can cause DNA damage, resulting in as many as 1 million individual molecular lesions per cell per day. Many of these lesions cause structural damage to the DNA molecule and can alter or eliminate the cell's ability to transcribe the gene that the affected DNA encodes. Other lesions induce potentially harmful mutations in the cell's genome, which affect the survival of its daughter cells after it undergoes mitosis. Consequently, the DNA repair process is constantly active as it responds to damage in the DNA structure.
The rate of DNA repair is dependent on many factors, including the cell type, the age of the cell, and the extracellular environment. A cell that has accumulated a large amount of DNA damage, or one that no longer effectively repairs damage incurred to its DNA, can enter one of three possible states:
The DNA repair ability of a cell is vital to the integrity of its genome and thus to its normal functioning and that of the organism. Many genes that were initially shown to influence lifespan have turned out to be involved in DNA damage repair and protection. Failure to correct molecular lesions in cells that form gametes can introduce mutations into the genomes of the offspring and thus influence the rate of evolution.
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